All about kale 😊
So I’ve decided to share a few little recipes I’ve tried out, just to break up your day a little. While focusing on recovering from trauma, while emotional and mental healing is essential, we often dismiss physical needs. Healing needs a holistic approach but I’ve decided just to focus on one vegetable or fruit at a time so that maybe if you fancy trying a recipe you don’t need a whole shopping list to try it, you only need to remember one item because being honest with you, I love cooking but if someone gave me a recipe that needed loads of ingredients right now, I’d probably ignore it. So this first one is going to be all about kale.
So first a little (very little) bit of history. Did you know that kale is thought to be one of the first brassica to be cultivated? I didn’t. And the large and course leafed kales are grown to feed cattle and sheep. There, told u it was only a little bit.
There are some health benefits I’d like to share with you now and I take no. 10 with a pinch of salt and I’ll explain when I get there.
- Kale is among the most nutrient dense foods on the planet.
2. It is loaded with powerful antioxidants.
3. It is an excellent source of vitamin c.
4. Kale can help lower cholesterol.
5. Its one of the world’s best sources of vitamin k.
6. There are numerous cancer fighting substances in kale.
7. Kale is very high in beta-carotene.
8. Kale is a good source of minerals that most people don’t get enough of.
9. Kale is high in nutrients that protect the eyes.
And finally the one I say take with a pinch of salt and I say this because it has to be part of a healthy diet..
10. Kale should be able to help you lose weight.
So I won’t bore you with more information since we are probably all having a little information overload just now, or I have a seriously small brain…. What can we do with this wonderful food? Any recipes I write I have tried for my own health as I was diagnosed with chronic ibs 9 years ago, so my recipes usually have to be very low fat and dairy free.
The prep is the same whatever way you want to cook kale, remove the stalk as it is very tough to eat.
1. Very quick this one, remove stalk, slice thinly and steam until tender. If you don’t have a steamer, I don’t, just boil it but for a little less time than you would steam.
2. Same prep but pan fry gently in some butter (I use dairy free spread, works the same) season with salt and pepper.
3. I like this one for comfort food personally. Prep and cook the kale like either no. 1 or no. 2, whatever u prefer, then mix through some mashed potatoes. If you wanted it to all be done in one pan just throw the kale in with the potatoes for a few minutes then mash it all together. Saves washing up doesn’t it.
4. This is a guilty pleasure one for me and my family. Great snack and still really good for you. Remove stalk, rip the leaves into bits around the shape of a crisp. I personally use low fat cooking spray and season before I place in the oven, but if you want to deep fry them it takes about a minute and you season them after. So with the oven method I lay them on a tray evenly and put them in a low heated oven for about 10-15 minutes until the edges start to go slightly brown but not burnt. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. I like salt and pepper on mine but you can try any seasoning you fancy. Try different spices out, nice bit of chilli for a change. Great to experiment with flavours with the kids as well. If you don’t eat them all at once (they are addictive) they store perfectly fine in an airtight container. Good luck finding self control with this one.
So, I hope you find these ideas useful guys, the little kale snacks are a great way to get more veg into kids, even hiding it in the mash. You have to be cunning sometimes, I know this all too well. I hope you enjoy them, and stay safe. M
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